I Wouldn't Go There If I Were You

 (GIF from Giphy)

The web can be a dangerous monster if you're not careful. Make time to educate yourself on what you believe is safe on the web and what's not.

When you are surfing the web, there are a few things you should be aware of so you don't fall into someone's trap. This is the time of year when people usually fall for online fraud or scams from doing online shopping or just simply surfing the web. In 2012, the FBI's released an annual report from the Internet Crime Complaint Center which stated that there were a total of 290,000 complaints from victims. The report also indicated that there were approximately $525.5 million dollars in losses as a result. Therefore, be careful where you wander off to on the web. Always keep your guard up and avoid suspicious pop-ups and websites.

I tend to avoid any websites that are designed poorly because I don't want to get viruses on my computers. Especially, if the website has too many pop-ups or asks for too much personal information. I don't sign up for random prize/sweepstakes online because I don't know who's really going to be calling me.

Social media can also be scary if you aren't picky about who you talk to and share with. The only form of social media that I am a member of is Facebook. Facebook is the only place I can connect with my friends and family who are miles away. I advise that you set up your account wisely. On my social sites, I make sure to adjust the privacy settings to make my profile extremely hard to find and I always set my profile on private. I avoid the other social sites like Twitter and Tumblr because most of the time I just don't understand how to use them. On social networks, keep in mind to never accept strangers to be your friend because you don't know what's on your new "friend's" agenda.

The web houses so many things that may not be appropriate for the younger generation. It is contaminated with provocative and violent things that could corrupt someone's mind. Setting up filters and parental control should be ideal when your children began the journey into the world of the web. As a parent myself, I want to make sure my children are safe and are aware of the dangers of the web.

I feel as though someone is always watching you even when you least expect it. That's the danger of the web.

Natural Pet Food... Switch Over!

I work at a store called Felix & Oscar. Pet Food... Naturally.

Before I worked here I never even began to think of what was in or how they made my dog's food. To me, as long as she ate it... it was great! 

However, as time went on and I learned more about the food I was feeding my dog I became disgusted. The things I learned about the dog food companies, such as Beneful and Alpo, I was mortified that I could even consider feeding these things to my poor puppy! 

Let me just quickly educate the pet owners on some things. First off, by-products. Pet owners see this on almost all the generic grocery store kibble. What is it? Well, what the dog food companies want them to believe is that it is the left overs of a chicken they didn't use like the heart, liver, kidneys, etc. Sometimes it is this... However! Most of the time it is what ever the producers scrap off the ground when they are down killing the animals. It can be anything from the beaks of the chickens to the hooves and tails of cows... anything left over on the floor... scoop it up and put it in it in the food to be considered a "by-products."

Also if it you happen to look at the ingredients and it says meat-by products... throw it back on the shelf and run! The FDA doesn't have clear guidelines on what the by products need to be. So if you see meat by-products, this could possibly include road kill! 

Next, added coloring and chemicals. Anytime you see added coloring such as Red40, there have been studies that have shown these dyes cause serious health issues. Beneful contains all of these different types of food coloring and added chemicals. Bottom line, if the owners can't understand what is in the ingredients either don't get it or look it up to make sure its safe. Never trust the labels!

One last fact I have to put out there is watch the ingredients closely. The ingredients are listed from what is used the most to the least. None of the pet's food should have any type of corn, wheat, potatoes, starch, etc, in the first couple of ingredients. We in the natural pet food business call these fillers. We call them this because well... imagine it like this. If we were to eat only bread for lunch we would be starving in oh lets say... and hour. That is the effect it has on the dogs. Ever wonder why they seem tired all the time? 

When pet owners switch over to natural pet food they will notice the biggest change in their dogs. Trust me! I saw it for myself when I finally convinced my parents to start giving my dog more natural pet food. Your pets will start to be more active. They won't be hungry all the time. They'll have more energy and their skin and coats will start to look shinny and fuller. 

Hopefully after reading this pet owners will consider what I've said here today. If the pet owners are anything like me our pets are our babies! Don't feed our babies crap! 

Here are couple of Natural Pet Foods:

• The Honest Kitchen
• Orijen
• Fromm
• Nature's Variety
• Stella and Chewy's
• Zignature
• Evangers
• Weruva
• K9-Kraving

Where I Dare Not Go on the Web.

I have to start off by saying I had a really hard time brainstorming on places I dare not go on the web. I had to ask my mom what her opinion was and she actually sparked a light, you could say, about some things I just would not trust on the web.

For starters, fake email links. I never trust them! Those email links that say, "You have won $1,000 dollars!!!! Just click on this link and it's all yours!" That is just utter ridiculousness. Talk about serious viruses. No thank you!
Also, I don't know if any of you guys have done this but when you apply for jobs through Craigslist or sketchy sites, a lot of them tend to be fake ones to high jack your money. Here's an example of an email I'd received:

My next place isn't a place at all. It's a habit I would hate to pick up... searching for medical advice on the web. Not Smart! There are so many things that could go wrong with you doing research by yourself. A lot of medical issues have the same symptoms so you can diagnose yourself and freak yourself out for no good reason! You could have symptoms like, fever and fatigue. The internet shows this as symptoms for Ebola! However, it's most likely just your common cold.

Places I wouldn't go on the Web!

This is such an interesting, yet great question to talk about. I don't think we would usually think of the places they we wouldn't go on the web. This makes you think.

 

Places I don't go on the web are news websites like Fox news. I don't really agree with the opinions and information that Fox sometimes gives. For news, as stated in a previous blog, I would prefer to go to social media or maybe a news article website. Another place I wouldn't go on the web or just don't go on the web are places where I can't get inspired, learn something, or somewhere that doesn't bring life. Websites that wouldn't inspire me go from a huge range.

 

Another place that I don't like to go on the web is anywhere where it'll cause my computer to get a virus. There are a lot of websites that can cause your computer to get a virus some game websites and then some inappropriate websites. Anything that will cause a virus on my computer I will  not go to! At all!

I think these are all the websites that I don't go on. I think it's hard sometimes stating something that you don't go to.

Where Won't I Go on the Web?

Every day, people go on different website to do their research; it could be related to school, work, and  personal life. Some of websites that people visited help them a lot, but for some other websites, people try to avoid due to some of political and other issues.  Wherever I am visiting websites, I have reasons for visiting it.  There are so many websites that I wish I hadn't see it because some of websites are unpleasant and waste of time.

                    

                                                          Google Images

  One of website that I try to avoid is TMZ. This website organization focus on celebrity gossip and entertainment news.  TMZ is not only has its website, but it has its own TV shows. TMZ obsesses with celebrity’s life, for example, there will be photos and comments about Taylor Swift break out with his boyfriend, Calvin Harris. Another example will there will be long discussion about Kardashian naked photo.  Personally, I won’t waste my time to visit the website. I am not interesting of what's going on celebrity's life or gossip. Celebrity are not my idol that I should worship by following their whole life.  There are no benefits in my life for knowing all these information.  What good is it that if the web just focus on celebrity?

Second, Facebook is other website that I won’t bother my time to go on.  People post their whole story online, and then comments about it. I could text or talk to my friend personally to see how’s he/she doing.  Also, I have privacy concerns on the web.  I don’t want put my personal information online and allow people that I don’t know to know about it. Even though I didn’t mention word to word, but the image that I post could describe thousand words. It is almost like the people on Facebook have nothing to do rather post pictures and comments about other users pictures.  I could spend my time on other things rather spending time on Facebook learning about people that I don’t know about.

                        

                                                           Google Image

            Last and but not least, I won’t go on sketchy websites.  Websites that have multiple online ads, boring design, registration requirement, and bad content structure consider as sketchy websites.  Websites have all those requirements that I definitely won't go to. When the website shows all those contents, it means that its website is not trustful.  Also, website show all those contents could have virus, which could spread virus into my computer if I visiting the web; as result, it will damages my computer.  For instance, every time I don't have the channel to watch my favorite soccer team play on the TV, I usually go to a web that offer free stream soccer game.  While I was watching on the web, the virus from its web spread to my computer; eventually over couple of months, I had to replace my computer. I have learned from experience that be careful what website I should avoid.

In the end, it’s all up to people to decide whether they should visit that site or not.  I have learned some of the lessons from experiences and knowing what I shouldn’t on.  When people go on a website, they should ask themselves before click on the web, “Why do I need on that website?” or “Is there any benefit for me to go on that web?”  

Where do I Dare not Tread?

The internet is a dangerous place full of viruses, propaganda, memes, and poorly lit selfies. There are places you go on the internet and places that, though you've stared at the links, you can't seem to make yourself actually click on them. Some of those places are obvious, such as anything containing NSFW content or the wonderful Pennyjuice.com. The blinding array of colors and cartoon background combine for a headache inducing experience. The design is fitting for the audience, if the audience is a gaggle of preschoolers, not the people running the preschool. Seriously, follow the link for a truly magical (horrible) internet experience!

Then, there are the places on the web that we personally avoid though others may flock to them. I tend avoid Facebook as often as I can. The reason is simple; it stresses me out. Facebook is essentially a place that people I don't talk to go and flaunt how well their lives are going. I have the privilege of reading about people getting engaged, starting relationships (with my long standing crushes), having babies, and just generally being ahead of me in life!

Not to say that I don't have an incredible life, but there's something depressing about sitting at your desk or laying in your bed scrolling through your Facebook feed and seeing everyone's accomplishments.  Of course, there are those few people who boost your ego right back up.

I know a lot of people who use sites to stream videos, though I tend to stick with Netflix. YouTube is super popular, but mainly contains original content due to copyright issues. There are very dubious sites that claim they will let you stream videos for free online, but they are usually illegal or filled to the brim with viruses. If you ever visit a site and it insists you update your flash player, then offers a download, do not use it. Chrome automatically updates flash, and safari alerts you when you actually need to update. I had to replace my hard drive once because of this, so I'm hyper aware of suspicious websites. 

Other than that, there really aren't any places I avoid going. Cult websites? The occult is interesting! Business sites? I'm trying to set up a LLC (limited liability corporation) so I use all the tools I can find. Honestly, I'm a curious person and when I run into a topic that snags my interest, I follow it where ever I can find information.

Where do I not go on the internet?

To be entirely honest, I am writing this with little to no idea where I do not go on the internet. The easy answer would be to just say its wherever I do not frequent, though that isn't the point of this post. The question seems more of WHY do I not frequent certain parts of the internet. The answer I have as of now is: I am not really sure. For the most part these unattended places are probably ones I have not discovered, and thus I wait in the lobby of the internet, not knowing how to go further.



That being said, one of the websites that I try to avoid using is Facebook. Though with how connected it is, it's hard to avoid the website entirely. I mainly use it to keep updated on certain events and get rid of the notifications on the app symbol. I start to scroll through my news feed, wondering what I am going to find, despite the fact that I always run into the same posts that keep me at bay: incessant drama between two people who can't communicate, self righteous opinions, and those dreaded minion memes where the text has nothing in correlation with the fact that it contains minions.
One of the reasons I tend to  the website is simply because t things I see on Facebook are repost from other websites, whether they be from Imgur or not. Considering myself part of the Imgur community, reposting something without crediting the original poster, especially for popularity's sake, is a huge sin to Imgur.


via GIPHY

When I encounter Facebook more often than not I am surrounded by these reposts, whether it be things from years ago, or a meme that has finally made it's way to facebook long after it's stopped being funny to me. Not just that, but a lot of times I see the multitude of opinion posts where people seem to believe that posting their opinions to Facebook will somehow change someone's mind, or even worse; The uninformed opinion. This often stems from people seeing sensationalized posts and information, then commenting or sharing it as fact without checking the source. This, I know,  because I have been guilty of it before. Now this isn't to be holier than thou or anything like that, it is what I notice and encounter when I go on Facebook, (Says a lot about my friends when I think about it). I have also found that people seem to use Facebook as a platform to broadcast their achievements, opinions, and beliefs, though sometimes not in a positive manner.


When I browse the internet I usually like to see new information and new, original content. Ironically its where I go to escape the myriad of political opinions and social dogma that seems to underlie a lot of our daily lives; everyone has to have an opinion and someone is always offended. But hey, that's just me.





(ps. The guy in in these gifs is a YouTuber by the name of "JonTron". He makes great faces that are perfect for gifs.)